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Yet another of my musical influences.
Jaco Pastorius was an incredible musician. He is to the fretless bass guitar what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar. He made the bass sing and growl and do previously unheard-of things, like harmonics.
I first heard of Jaco from Paul Iorio and Dave Limina, two of my musical friends from high school. Paul was a bass player; Dave a piano/organ player. Jaco was Paul's idol; Paul even bought himself a fretless bass to sound and play like Jaco. And they both liked jazz and were in the school's jazz ensemble. They played recordings of Jaco's works for me, from Weather Report to Joni Mitchell.
Paul, Dave, and I were the "Khazzmhyck Brothers". We did really strange things in the band room studio, like hook up an oscilloscope to a Barbra Streisand record. Some of the notes she sang were pure sine-wave -- no harmonics or overtones.
After I graduated, we all went our separate ways. Dave is now a professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Paul simply vanished.
As for Jaco.....sadly, he had problems with alcohol and drugs, and was beginning to show signs of manic depression (now called bipolar disorder).
He was badly beaten outside a club in Ft. Lauderdale in 1987 by the club's bouncer, suffered brain damage, and died four days later. The music world lost a legend that day. But his legacy lives on, as he has influenced scores of musicians.
Here's the Wikipedia article on Jaco.
Jaco Pastorius was an incredible musician. He is to the fretless bass guitar what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar. He made the bass sing and growl and do previously unheard-of things, like harmonics.
I first heard of Jaco from Paul Iorio and Dave Limina, two of my musical friends from high school. Paul was a bass player; Dave a piano/organ player. Jaco was Paul's idol; Paul even bought himself a fretless bass to sound and play like Jaco. And they both liked jazz and were in the school's jazz ensemble. They played recordings of Jaco's works for me, from Weather Report to Joni Mitchell.
Paul, Dave, and I were the "Khazzmhyck Brothers". We did really strange things in the band room studio, like hook up an oscilloscope to a Barbra Streisand record. Some of the notes she sang were pure sine-wave -- no harmonics or overtones.
After I graduated, we all went our separate ways. Dave is now a professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Paul simply vanished.
As for Jaco.....sadly, he had problems with alcohol and drugs, and was beginning to show signs of manic depression (now called bipolar disorder).
He was badly beaten outside a club in Ft. Lauderdale in 1987 by the club's bouncer, suffered brain damage, and died four days later. The music world lost a legend that day. But his legacy lives on, as he has influenced scores of musicians.
Here's the Wikipedia article on Jaco.
